


I Won't Let Them Hurt You

by sagen_meow



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, and he also has a little bit of an unknown crush on nico, homophobia tw, in which percy just wants to see nico happy, ref chracter death, slurs tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 07:23:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7258000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagen_meow/pseuds/sagen_meow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy is sick of how people treat Nico for being out of the closet. He catches everyone, especially Nico, off guard by kissing him in front of the homophobic student body.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Won't Let Them Hurt You

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this for over a year, and I know it's not the greatest writing but I hope you will enjoy it regardless. I saw the prompt on tumblr forever ago and thought it would be fun. Any critique or reviews are appreciated!

Kissed you to piss off some homophobes AU

"Just ignore them," I muttered to Nico, pulling him along. 

"Faggot!"  
"Go kill yourself fucking homo!"

Pushing through a group of the bullies, I flipped them off behind my back. Nico didn't like it when I did stuff like that. He didn't think it helped, and I'm sure it didn't. It certainly made me feel better though. 

Ever since Nico came out publicly as gay, he'd gotten nothing but an entourage of hate. I felt bad for him, he's been like a little brother to me since his sister Bianca had died. I had been pretty good friends with her, and being friends with her meant you had to be friends with her little brother. It really wasn't a bad deal, because Nico was a fun kid. Until she died, at least. 

He had been a bright-eyed kid, into silly games and having a lot of fun. Once she had died, the Nico I knew died with her. He wasn't taking her death well, and became obsessed with death itself. I was afraid of what these signs could entail, so I got closer to him. He became the little brother I never had. 

Of course Nico had come out to me long ago, testing how it would turn out for him. I was so supportive of him, it may have gotten his hopes up about everyone else would receive him. He eventually told our friend group, most of them having the same support for him that I gave him. 

Unfortunately we had one friend who didn't like that Nico was gay, Luke. He bombarded him with horrible questions, 'What made you turn gay?' 'You poor boy! It must have been Bianca's death!'

Sufficed to say, he left our friend group and spread Nico's secret like wildfire amongst the student body. Although I was a senior, Nico was a sophomore. He would have to endure two more years of this hell, and I wouldn't be able to help him. 

I've gotten in many fights defending Nico from these shitheads, most of which I hope Nico doesn't know about. He tries hard not to let them get to him, but I don't want his silence to mean 'pick on me I won't fight back'. I want to be fighting for Nico. 

Nico rolled his eyes at the girls giggling as we passed them. I tried to pull him away before we heard anything from them, but it was too late. 

"Don't get too close there Percy, you might get AIDS!"

I finally snapped. Stopping in my tracks, I faced them and took Nico's hand in mine. His cheeks got intensely red quick and quietly muttered to me. "Percy, what are you doing?"

"Close? You mean like this?" I taunted, dipping Nico down and pressing my lips against his. His lips were surprisingly very soft, and I found myself melting into the kiss. The hallway filled with gasps and silence, but it still took me a second to want to pull away. Nico looked as stunned as the rest of the crowd of students. He pulled me by our still clasped hands, taking us to the empty men's room down the hall. 

"Percy, what the fuck?" he said angrily, quickly letting go of my hand. 

I shrugged. I honestly didn't know what came over me, but it felt so good to piss off those homophobes. 

Nico pushed me against the wall. "Don't you fucking shrug at me. I want an answer, Percy Jackson."

I sighed and pushed Nico back. "Because I'm getting really sick of them doing this to you Nico. They don't need to be making stupid comments at you and fucking bullying you."

"But Percy," Nico's voice became softer. "They'll do the same to you now too."

I nodded, shrugging again. "So? Better me than you. I can handle them."

Nico shook his head solemnly and looked down. "No, I don't want you to. You don't deserve it."

"Neither do you," I countered. "You don't need to go through this pain just because they think you're some kind of demon. You're Nico di Angelo, and you're no different now than before you came out."

Nico gave a slight smile, but turned his back to me and washed his face in the sink. "Thanks Perce. I wish that it was that simple..."

I nodded as I leaned against the wall. "I know Neeks. It'll get better soon though."

He shook his head and looked down at the running water. Sighing, Nico turned it off and gave me a hug. I returned the sentiment gladly, hugging him tighter and making him squeak from the pressure. I laughed at him ruffled his very shaggy hair affectionately. He gave me a very annoyed look, to which I just kept grinning at him. As we separated, I walked toward the bathroom door to get to class. I was thinking to myself about whether or not I should just skip class at this point after being late when Nico's voice cut through my thoughts. 

"What are we going to tell people?" He asked, obviously very nervous. "Knowing them, they're going to just jump to you being my boyfriend and stuff. I know you're not really into boys and stuff so..."

"Well who says I'm not now?" I told him confidently. His face contorted in shock and confusion. "You know I've been thinking about it, and maybe I am kinda gay? I honestly think I might be bisexual or something."

Nico seemed to go bright red at my confession. "B-bisexual?!" 

"I've actually been leaning more towards pansexual, honestly," I pondered, partly to myself. "But basically, yeah."

Nico took a big breath and turned around so that his back was to me. Confused, I walked over and put a hand on his shoulder to kind of comfort him. He jumped a little bit at my touch and slowly turned around to face me. 

"Are you okay Neeks?" I asked worriedly. He quickly nodded his head and took a step back. 

"Yeah I just...never expected that from you," Nico answered nervously. "I always thought you were, you know...straight as an arrow."

I laughed at his wording, which seemed to bring the edge off of him a little bit. 

"Nah. But thanks to you coming out I've had the courage to think about my own preferences and stuff. You're also...the first person I've told," I admitted, my face turning a little red. 

Nico immediately brought me into a huge hug. He and I had gone through something like this already with him coming out, so he must be pretty happy to have the roles reversed. 

"Thanks for telling me Perce," he whispered to me. 

"Anything for you Neeks," I told him. He let go pretty quickly after that, taking another deep breath. I looked confused at him, but as quick as he let go he looked up at me and punched my shoulder playfully. 

"Should we get to class now?" he asked. We'd been in the bathroom for at least 15 minutes into class. We would probably get tardy slips and a detention, so it was probably better for us to just leave for the day. We only had one class left anyways, so we wouldn't miss much. 

"If we go it'll just be a mess. Let's go get something to eat, I'm starving," I said, pushing the door open and earning a laugh from Nico. 

"We just ate lunch you asshole," he remarked. 

I shrugged and grinned. "You know I have a bottomless pit for a stomach. Plus school food just doesn't fill me up."

Nico chuckled as we walked over to my car to find a place to eat. "Whatever you say, Jackson." 

"That's Mr. Jackson to you," I joked. Nico was back to his old self again. It was so great to be around him without all the other students. He could be himself and not have to worry about judgment from other kids. I had to admit that I loved the way Nico was away from everyone else, the Nico that I knew. 

 

Nico and I ended up hanging out the rest of the day as well. We went to a local fast food restaurant where we spent a good few hours hanging out. We sat in a booth in the back of the restaurant. I was sitting normally as I ate my food, but Nico stretched his legs across his side of the booth. I got a burger and some fries with a milkshake, but Nico ended up stealing the milkshake and having most of it. He also ended up stealing quite a few fries to eat with the milkshake, but I didn't mind too much. He never seemed to eat anything, so it was great when I got him to eat something. 

"I thought we just ate lunch?" I asked Nico, teasing him for taking so many of my fries. He blushed and started sipping his milkshake, not really wanting to answer. 

"Fries are just good okay?" Nico said quietly, not willing to look in my general direction. He hadn't looked at me much the entire meal, even when he was talking to me about how home and school was going. 

He had a complicated relationship with his step-mom, Persephone, which tended to make his home life difficult to go home to. Which I understood. My parents hadn't stayed together for long when I was younger, so I ended up with not so favorable step parents for a while until they finally found people I could work with too. Our friend group was full of people with complicated family arrangements, which is one of the reasons we all were able to get along so well. 

"Why won't you look at me?" I asked after a small pause in the conversation. His eyes avoided me even more after I asked the question. "Ever since we got here you've just kept looking everywhere but at me. Is something wrong? Was it something I said?" 

Nico sighed and put his milkshake back on the table. He had such a pained look on his face, it made me feel like I was going to regret asking. 

"I just keep thinking about what you did," he confessed. "You did that to stand up for me, but now everyone is just going to make fun of you too. They won't even understand if you tell them you're pansexual. They don't believe it exists, so you'll just be degraded to gay."

"Degraded?!" I asked furiously, raising my voice. "Yeah they won't understand me, but being called gay wouldn't degrade me. Being gay shouldn't be degrading, Nico!" 

Nico shushed me quickly, his tears making his eyes glassy. "I know Percy, I'm sorry. I wish that I could feel like a person again. I wish I could be able to walk around school again without having to worry that someone is going to tell me how much I need to die. I'm scared that I'm starting to believe them."

What he said struck a chord in my chest. All the pain he had felt all this time filled my heart at once. I tried so hard to protect him, but there was no way I could be there for him every second of the day. When we were much younger he had idolized me as a hero because of how much I helped him and Bianca out. I've always tried to keep that heroic image of myself for him. I cared so much for this shaggy-haired dork, it broke my heart to not be the hero in his story. My eyes welled up with tears that I couldn't hold back. 

"Nico..." I quietly whispered. I reached out to his hand to comfort him, but he quickly pulled his hand back and balled his hands up in his lap. That made it hurt even more, but I knew Nico wasn't too much of a touchy-feely person. I needed to be understanding of his situation now more than ever. 

"I just don't want you to know how it feels too Percy," Nico said as he choked back his sobs. "Because I really care about you. You've been here for me for so long and I don't want them to break you like they broke me."

"You're not broken," I whispered, wiping the tears from my eyes. I have to be strong for him. I'm not going to break. "They've just hurt you. But I won't let them hurt you anymore. I promise."

Nico wiped the tears from his face, but his expression wouldn't change from the grieving one he wore from the start of the conversation. "Can you just take me home?" 

I looked down defeatedly and nodded. I didn't want to take him home. I wanted to keep him close and let him know how much he was cared about. How much I cared about him. As we threw away our garbage and walked to the car, an idea popped into my mind. I was going to prove to him how much I cared. 

After we were both buckled in, I grabbed the aux cord to plug in my phone for music. I turned it to Panic! at the Disco, a band Nico had got me into when I first started getting close to him. I played the first song he had showed me, Nine in the Afternoon. Of course Nico was still upset, but I could see out of the corner of my eye how it was making him feel better, even if it was just a little. 

As I drove, I went went mostly the route to his house. I had to throw him off track from my idea. He was oblivious to what was going on while the list of songs went on. I had distracted him with music that he couldn't help singing along to and getting lost in. It gave me the chance to veer off course to where I wanted to take him. He hadn't realized that we weren't going to his house until we were almost to our destination. 

"Hey, this isn't my place," he muttered, just loud enough for me to hear. 

"Nope," I told him confidently as I unbuckled myself and unplugged my phone. "This is the park where Bianca and I would take you when you were younger."

He grew visibly upset with the mention of his sister's name. I knew he remembered the the last time we visited this park, because it was the first time we had visited the park without Bianca. I had found him here after he had learned of her death. She was killed by a drunk driver while on her way home from her first day of work. Nico found out when the police came to their home, and immediately ran away. People had searched all over town, but none knew of the park's significance like I did. It wasn't one of the first places I searched, but I knew once I couldn't find him anywhere else that he would be there. 

"I don't want to go out there," he whispered. "Please just take me home."

I climbed out of the car and shut my door, then I made my way over to his side and opened the door. He hadn't moved an inch and couldn't take his eyes off the scene in front of him. 

"I know this is hard for you, but I'm going to make it better again," I told him, getting down so that I was closer to eye level and touching his shoulder. His sad eyes snapped to mine, clearly very afraid to believe me. "I promise, Nico di Angelo."

It took him a moment for him to decide, then he blinked his tears away and unbuckled himself. I grinned and stood up, holding my hand out to help him out like a gentleman would. He gave a small laugh and took my hand to help him out. I gave it a small squeeze and let go, shutting the door behind him. It made a small blush go across his face, which was pretty cute honestly. I started leading him to the tree Nico would climb in all the time. It was pretty huge, and was really good to climb. I would've liked to, but being in the sky made me feel uncomfortable for some reason. Bianca would sometimes though, usually when it was time to go and he wouldn't get out. 

Once we reached the base of the tree, I sat cross-legged against the tree. Nico sat across from me, hugging his knees to his chest. He was wearing a jacket that was not only too big for him, but also worn out. It was his favorite jacket that he wouldn't take off or throw away, so it had collected a lot of holes. 

"Why are we here Percy?" he asked, getting straight to the point. 

I sighed a little and smiled. "I'm never allowed to beat around the bush with you am I?" 

Nico raised an eyebrow at me to tell me to get going with whatever I had to say. He really wasn't taking any bullshit. 

"Alright, alright," I said. I wasn't nervous when I planned this, but as we sat here together some anxiety started to rise. My hands started to feel sweaty, so I wiped them against my pants and looked down to the dirt. "Well it's about today. I kissed you without your permission and probably freaked you out more than I freaked out them. So first of all I wanted to apologize for that."

He seemed shocked at what I said. When he realized I wasn't going to go on until he accepted my apology, he gave me a nod. 

"Second of all, you asked what was going to happen when people started to call me your boyfriend," I started, I quickly looked up at him and licked my lips nervously. I didn't know how he was going to take this. "And I just wanted to say that we should let them. And I um, was thinking that maybe we should not make them liars?" 

It took a moment for him to process what I said, but when it hit it he immediately gasped and started to back away. I feared this and looked away. Of course he wouldn't go for it. It was a dumb way to ask him out and he probably doesn't even like me that way. Just because he's gay and we're friends doesn't mean he likes me like that. "I'm sorry I just thought it would be best and after hanging out with you today and kissing you it just made sense in my mind but it's okay if you don't want to-" 

"Percy!" Nico said loudly, making my head shoot up. Before I knew it his lips were on were on mine and his hands were clutching my shirt. This one felt even better than the first one. It felt so good to have him kiss back and feel this kind of passion. I grabbed onto the arms of his jacket and pulled him closer. We deepened the kiss and sat him onto my lap, staying close. When we pulled apart, we were both grinning and laughing. 

"I thought you'd never ask," he whispered in my ear as he gripped me tightly. He bumped his forehead against mine and giggled a little bit more. "Mostly because I thought you were straight all this time."

I laughed and pecked his lips a couple of times. It felt so good to kiss him. "You were hoping I would ask?" 

After blushing and hiding his face in my neck, he confessed, "Well I've kinda liked you since I was really young."

"What a dork," I giggled, kissing him over and over wherever I could. "Well you should've kissed me sooner. Then I would've thought about it sooner."

He shook his head and looked back up into my eyes. "I have to say you're the dork here Perseus Jackson."

I rolled my eyes and hugged him tightly. "So you wanna kiss in front of them again?" 

"Hell yeah I do," he said as he pulled at the ends of my hair. It made him stop as with what must've been the worry of earlier that day. "What if they're worse now? What if they hurt you too?" 

"Then I'll just punch them until they shut up," I told him. It's true that it'll probably get worse for Nico, but I was going to do everything in my power to make sure he was safe. 

"The answer to everything is not to punch it, Perce," he said, giggling slightly. "Do you really promise it'll be okay?" 

"Of course, or I'm not your boyfriend," I whispered, pulling him closer. "We'll make it."

Nico smiled and pulled away to look into my eyes again. "Thank you."

"Anything for you," I said, kissing him again.


End file.
